This classic history is filled with colorful pathmarkers like Jedediah Smith, John C. Frémont, and Kit Carson; with packers, home seekers, and mail couriers; and with horse thieves and enslavers of Indian women and children.
LeRoy R. Hafen (1893–1985) was Professor of History at the University of Denver and Brigham Young University, Executive Director of the State Historical Society of Colorado, and author/editor of numerous books on the American West, including Ruxton of the Rockies, Fur Trappers and Traders of the Far Southwest: Twenty Biographical Sketches, and Handcarts to Zion: The Story of a Unique Western Migration, 1856–1860.